The stock Interstate has a maximum height of 9'8" at the air conditioner. Your installed satellite dish will be taller than the A/C, so after the install, measure your maximum height at the dish and post a label on your dashboard with the new height, just as a reminder.

A friend recently bought a Grand Tour and had a DirecTV dish installed. I asked him if it was the newer flat and wide dish, and he told me the installer had said that one was too wide for the available space on the roof. So he went with the older taller dish, which looks a little ugly but still remains below the level of the AC unit.
I haven't seen it - just passing on his comments!

The Tailgater I have is a portable unit. You set it somewhere where it can see the southern skies and run a cable either directly to the receiver or hook it up at the cable inlet on the side of the AI and then hook up the receiver to the cable in jack that is located in the front overhead storage area.

I don't think they can be mounted permanently. Being portable there is no reason to remove the original antenna. You can use it to receive local channels for those times you don't want to contact Dish to have the local channels at your camping site added to the Dish program guide.

We've decided not to mount it right now. Heading up to the Finger Lakes and Adirondack Mts for a couple of weeks. We will try it out as a portable. Sounds like it's pretty easy to set-up. If we do eventually mount it I will definitely consider our new clearance requirement. (The new King Tailgater is mountable and comes with brackets to install.) Thanks for everyone's input.

Need help from anyone using the Tailgater. I am unable to get satellite reception when I connect directly to the coach at the cable port in macerator compartment. I have connected the receiver to the satellite cable pre-wired above the drivers seat. I have removed the wire used to complete the cable connection from the coaxial plate as instructed in the AI manual. Please let me know if I am omitting a necessary step. I am hopeful it's not a coach wiring problem.

(I am able to get satellite service when I connect the receiver directly to the satellite.)

The purpose of this post is to describe the Airstream setup and use of the new King Tailgater as a means of watching HD TV no matter where you plan to camp. While free HDTV that comes through the roof top antenna is great, it is not available in most of the state campgrounds in Florida unless you are very close to major metropolitan area.

Visit Dish network before you plan to call in sign up to select the level of service you desire. Since my channel requirements were Fox, History Channel, Discovery and NatGeo, my wife requires HDTV. For us, that translated to the so-called “Top 120” which cost about $80 when we signed up for the single month of July, 2015.

It took me more than a day to make my system work because I mistakenly thought that just hooking the satellite antenna cable to my factory installed external RG6 connector via the antenna’s F-male screw connector.

For some strange reason, my use of campground supplied cable TV versus my HD-through-the-air antenna has always been confusing due to an unexplained switch inside my trailer to which my #1 TV connects. I can never remember which way the push button switch should be (green light push button switch on or off?).

This confusion results in many a false search for local stations in the TV’s “set up installation mode –search for channels.”

As a result of this confusion, I bought a cable connector data tester from Lowes:

To my surprise, this tester revealed that my external RG6 was operating but the internal plug was not conveying sufficient signal strength. Here is the solution to that problem for me: under my dining table on the rear bulkhead near the deck. In my fingers is a patch cable I removed which cross-connected my exterior connector with the interior connectors. The white coax cable now connected to the “Cable/Sat In” RG^ is the coax cable to the back of my satellite receiver. My receiver is connected to the receiver via a 25 foot HDMI cable which I snaked behind the couch cushions to the #1 TV. This arrangement minimizes line loses and HDMI assures great HD.

This 25 foot cable also gives me the option of connecting the #2 TV in the forward bunk compartment albeit by snaking the cable down the passageway. However, by locating the satellite receiver on top of a laser printer under the dining table, I can change channels from the bunk area.